Beschreibung:

Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958)
Signature: signed lower left
Medium: oil on canvas
Size: 20 x 24in. (50.80 x 60.96cm) Provenance: Collection of Maurice Solomon, acquired from the artist, c.1950; deVere's, 13 March 1990, lot 40; with the Oriel Gallery, Dublin; Private collection; Gorry Gallery, Dublin, 2003; Private collection; Taylor Galleries, Belfast, 2006; Private collection Exhibited: 'Paintings by Mr. & Mrs. Paul Henry', Magee's Gallery, Belfast, from 14 April 1919; 'Pictures by Paul & Grace Henry', Mill's Hall, Dublin, 12-24 May 1919; 'Exhibition of Paintings by Paul Henry and Frank McKelvey', Oriel Gallery, Dublin, 11 December 1990 to 26 January 1991, catalogue no. 32 (illustrated); 'Exhibition of 18th, 19th and 20th Century Irish Paintings', Gorry Gallery, Dublin, 2-12 March 2005, catalogue no. 41 (illustrated) Literature: Kennedy, S.B. Dr., Paul Henry with a Catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings and Illustrations, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007, p.209, catalogue no. 526 (illustrated) The composition, typography, handling of the paint and the general mood established in Western Skies is similar to that in a number of other pictures by Paul Henry such as An Antrim Bog, 1919 (SB Kennedy catalogue no. 525), A Western Landscape, c.19...Read more The composition, typography, handling of the paint and the general mood established in Western Skies is similar to that in a number of other pictures by Paul Henry such as An Antrim Bog, 1919 (SB Kennedy catalogue no. 525), A Western Landscape, c.1919 (no. 527) and The Bog Cutting, c.1919 (no. 528). An Antrim Bog is known to have been painted in the spring of 1919 when Paul Henry and his wife, Grace, visited Cushendun in County Antrim, so it seems likely that Western Skies also dates from around that time and that the setting is also County Antrim. If that is the case, then the precise location is almost certainly a stretch of bogland situated near Glarryford and close to the present A26 main road, an area famed for pine trees that form a sort of arch way over the road. The narrow strip of land at the bottom of the picture plane is common to all these pictures, as is the flat terrain and the band of purple hills in the distance that halts the eye's recession. In each case, too, the landscape is sodden and is further threatened with rain - indeed in Western Skies rain already intrudes - from the menacing cumulous clouds. The range of colours is restrained in each picture, although Western Skies is lighter in mood than is the case in the other compositions. Dr S.B. Kennedy